Council gives nod for building designs

Preliminary designs for a new municipal building in Somerset should be ready before the borough council's January meeting.

Somerset Borough Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to direct its engineer to develop the preliminary designs for the project.

After some modifications and additional planning, the preliminary designs will eventually become the final blueprints, borough Manager Benedict G. Vinzani Jr. said.

The borough is planning to build a new administrative building in a vacant lot across the street from its current building on Union Street.

The borough has already conducted a space needs study and had floor plans completed for the administrative building.

After the new building is constructed, the current borough building will be renovated to serve as a public safety building. Engineers have already prepared a conceptual opinion of costs for that project.

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Though no money is budgeted for the building project in 2007, Vinzani said the council has several options at its disposal if it to fund the project, including borrowing money.